Posts tagged with CARBOHYDRATES

One of the challenges of arguing that hyperprocessed carbohydrates are largely responsible for the obesity pandemic (“epidemic” is no longer a strong enough word, say many experts) is the notion that “a calorie is a calorie.”

Accept that, and you buy into the contention that consuming 100 calories’ worth of sugar water (like Coke or Gatorade), white bread or French fries is the same as eating 100 calories of broccoli or beans. And Big Food — which has little interest in selling broccoli or beans — would have you believe that if you expend enough energy to work off those 100 calories, it simply doesn’t matter.

There’s an increasing body of evidence, however, that calories from highly processed carbohydrates like white flour (and of course sugar) provide calories that the body treats differently, spiking both blood sugar and insulin and causing us to retain fat instead of burning it off.

About a year ago, the pentailed tree shrew — a small mammal from the rain forests of west Malaysia — had its photo splashed across the newspapers. Why? Because close observations of these animals revealed that they often drink large amounts of alcohol. Their preferred tipple? Nectar from the flowers of the bertam palm. (This nectar is often alcoholic owing to the fermenting actions of a number of wild yeast species.)

Yet despite their enthusiastic alcohol consumption, pentailed tree shrews don’t get drunk. Nor do they suffer the diseases that a human alcoholic tends to suffer. In other words, they seem to have evolved to be immune to the excess.

Which made me think. As everyone knows, many humans now live in an environment of gross food excess, with fatty, sugary foods available as never before. At the moment, chronic over-eating leads to obesity, diabetes and a suite of associated health problems. But would it be possible, in principle, to evolve so that we could eat more without suffering these consequences? Read more…